


Like Old Times

by Missy



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode Tag: s07e08 Moving In, Episode Tag: s07e11 Love is the Tar Pits, F/M, Old Friends, Pre-Relationship, mild pining, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26243836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: As Lenny tries to de-tar himself, Laverne stops by the boys' apartment - suspiciously outraged by Lenny's apparent plan to move to New York with Karen.
Relationships: Laverne DeFazio & Lenny Kosnowski, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 2





	Like Old Times

Lenny had just finished his third shower of the day when someone started pounding at his front door. He jumped back into his jeans and grabbed a semi-clean towel to rub through his dirty blond hair. 

“Keep your pants on!” he hollered. “I’m coming!” He winced as another chunk of tar came off in the towel and pulled out a bit of hair right from his scalp. Still, he smelled and felt cleaner, and better, than he had since Karen had dumped him earlier in the afternoon. Heck, Lenny hadn’t been this clean since he left Milwaukee. 

He headed to the door and pulled it open – and was taken aback to find Laverne DeFazio standing on his doorstep. “Are you crazy?” she blurted out, before he could say hello.

“No, Laverne, I’m Lenny – you remember that, right?” She curled up a fist and he cowered backwards. Lenny had been hoping that was the right answer. “Wanna come in?” She pushed past him and started pacing.

“I mean, I know Karen’s a great girl, but New York! Len, you ain’t ever lived anywhere without Squiggy or your family nearby! You’ve barely been dating her for a month and you’re gonna go all the way across the country for her? What if you break up and you have to get a job and stay there? How could you deal with that? You might end up on the street!” Then she pointed the tip of her index finger in his direction, red nails flashing in the sunlight. “And you gave me that whole speech about how I shouldn’t move in with David unless I was married or I’d turn into a used Salad Shooter! Why’s it okay for you to live with her and not okay for me to live with him?” 

Lenny squirmed at that declaration. Her eyes were so direct – inescapably so. Telling her a half-lie, as always, was easier than coming forth with the truth. “Because…well, you’re a girl. And anyway, who else was gonna love me like that, huh? I had one shot at that and I tried my best and still blew it.”

“What’s that got to do with it?” she asked. “Isn’t Karen a girl…wait, was?” 

Lenny gloomily sat down at his kitchen table. “She finally woke up and dumped me today,” he said. “Didn’t want me to come with her to New York, either.”

He saw the relief in Laverne’s eye and almost smirked in spite of himself. “Oh…I’m sorry, Len. I didn’t know.” She sat down across from him without being asked to, not that he’d ever kick her out for it.

“It’s all right. Ain’t your fault.” Then, sheepishly, he added, “I’m sorry I wrecked things for you with David a couple of months ago. I just…”

“Was jealous?” she asked. She looked hopeful to a degree.

“Maybe,” he admitted to his feet. “But it was bigger than that. I want you to have the best guy in the world. I care about you. And David – well, he was a nice guy, but he wasn’t the kinda guy who’d be willing to walk a million miles for you.” 

“I felt that way about Karen. She’s a real nice girl, and she was sweet to you, but she wasn’t gonna stick her neck out for you, either.” And he realized, suddenly, that Laverne had been jealous of Karen, too.

“Maybe we ought to set each other up on dates, eh?” Lenny asked. But as she said that he remembered he’d sent ‘Fred’ to her doorstep and turned a trifle pale. 

She snorted. “You can’t do too much worse than I am for myself,” she said. “You know the guy I asked to my party? He showed up at my door the other day and asked me out. Push came to shove and he asked me to do a bunch of weird stuff I wasn’t into. Anyway, I kicked him out on his keister and told him to lose my number.”

Lenny let out a small sigh. Good. Maybe she’d never know what he’d done so thoughtlessly. Though knowing what he knew about himself, he’d probably confess soon enough. God, she was going to kick his butt from here to Taiwan. 

“How about we go out?” she asked suddenly.

He flushed. “Um..I’m still a little sticky,” he admitted. “Me and Squig had a fight down at La Brea and…”

“Don’t explain,” Laverne said, holding up a hand. “Why don’t we stay in? I’ll heat up the lasagna me and Shirl didn’t finish off from last night, and we can watch a monster movie together?”

He grinned. “Like old times?”

“Yeah,” she said. 

He grabbed a teeshirt and pulled it over his head, then happily followed her out the door. No matter how rough times were, Lenny thought to himself, he could at least count on Laverne being there for him, the same way he was there for her.


End file.
